BalloonLife,August1999

38

Experience of others can help prepare you for the unexpected!

HangarFlying

editedbyGeorgeDenniston

Gully Landing

by Tom Hamilton

Afterpackingupfollowingaflightmy
crew andI will oftenstoptosee if other
balloonistswholandednearby needany
help. That help is often welcomewhen the
other pilot is short on crew or settled in an
area that presents a challenge in returning
the balloonto its retrieve vehicle.
Youneverknowwhenyoumight
appreciatesomeextra helpafter aland-
ing. But, I am gettingahead of myself.
ThispastMarchIhadtheopportu-
nity to fly in New Zealand. One day of the
BalloonsOverWaikatoevent(seeBal-
loon LifeJuly 1999) was held in Huntly, a
smallcommunity along the banks of the
WaikatoRiver.
Duringthemorningpilotbriefing
balloonswereassignedtolaunchfrom
differentschoolsaroundtown.Surface
winds were aroundeight knots. Notsur-
prising since Huntly sits at the narrow end

ofavalley.Thedirectionofflightwill
taketheballoonsintowideopenfarm
country.Everyoneleavesfortheiras-
signed launch sites looking for aprotected
area to launch.
Iam in a relatively unprotected school
yard.After a briefing the crew onwindy
inflationswestandtheballoonup,but
deflate over a safety concern with the tie-
off restraint. While the equipment isbe-
ingadjusted I contact one of the balloons
inthe air. He reports that the wind, in the
more openrollingcountryside,seemsto
be slower on the surface. A second windy
inflation is accomplished without a hitch.
Three passengers are loaded, includ-
ingtwolocals and onecrew. Everything
seemssetandthetie-offis releasedand
away we go. At 25 feet I look to see how
fast we areascending and blurt out “Bugger.”
This is a Kiwi expressionfor a vari-

ety of disappointments, inflection impor-
tantindeterminingthedegreeof disap-
pointment. This was a big “Bugger.” Let’s
justsayIdidn’tgetananswertomy
question.
We clear town quickly moving about
15-20 miles an hour. I ask Jeremy, one of
mylocalpassengershow faritistothe
TasmanSea,sincethatisthegeneral
directionweareheading.Hesays20
kilometers. At the rate we are moving we
willbetherequickly.Afterclearinga
largelakeandmajorpowerlineIdrop
down and take a right turn paralleling the
coastline. For the nexthour we flyover
beautiful rolling Waikato region country-
side. This is mostlypasture land. Slowly
the land terrain begins to change to more
challenging slopes. I am the fifth balloon
off, only one more will take off about 30
minutes behind me. I am flying near Daryl
McKee,theothersappearedtohave
landed.
Iaskbothofmylocalpassengers,
SharonandJeremy, where weare. They
look over the side and do not have a clue.
Eventually we fly off the large map of the
area giventous.
Theground crewdoes call one of thecell
phones on board to find out where we are.
Approaching a hill top I can see Chris
Rudge, the unofficial balloonmeister, and
secondballoonoff, downina paddock.
The general arealooksgoodforlanding
and I select the part I think I might make.
Inthe endthewinddirectionisn’tquite
what I anticipated. I have a chance to land
in paddock next to Chris, but by then I am
notsureIcanstoptheballoonbefore
layingtheenvelopeoverabarbedwire
fence. I flyon.

BalloonLife,August1999

36

Ground elevation is now more than
500 feet higher than the launch point and
becoming more challenging.
The second paddock Iselect is an
upslopeside of a hill. There isa road with
gate access. Stillclippingright along I set
upthe approach. The roaddownwind,and
perpendicular tothe flightpath, does have
a powerline. I plan on being well short of
this and it shouldn’t be a problem. What
does become a problem is a bloody fence
line directly underme. Throughout the
approach I do not move off of it. On short
final I have to abort the approach using
double burners. Plenty of safety margin
with the road. Another bugger.
NowI am gettingonwithfuel andthe
approachingterrainislookingless
friendly. DarylandIareparalleling a
road, he on one sideandI onthe other. We
both do our approach to and landing at
about thesametimenotfarfromone
another.
Aheadof me I have some gulliesand
select the upslope sideof one where some
sheep are running. Surface windslooks to
be10-12knots. Iknow thatI willget some
curlinthegully.Astheballoonapproaches
over the top of the upwind ridge forming
the gullyI can see a 60-70 feet bushypine
tree in my flight path. The tree is about
halfwaydown inthe gully.Itell my
passengersthat we willflythroughthe top
of it. As expected,the balloon is being
pushed down on the lee side of the ridge.
Steady burning is barely controlling the
descent rate. After about ten seconds I
advisemy passengersthat wewill be
hitting the tree below the top. Five sec-
ondslater I order them to thebottom ofthe
basket.
We hitthemiddle ofthe treedoing 15
knots,leavinganimpressionof the basket
we roll off to the right, and continue the
approach to the upslope side of the gully.
I bring the balloon to a stand up landing
down near the bottom of the gully.
The envelope is being tossed about
and trying togift wrap a pine tree upslope
from where we are at. The slope issteep,
and as much as I would like to “fly” the

balloon up to the top of the ridge, there is
no way to “jump” thistree without flying
on. Groundhandlingthe balloonisnot an
option given the turbulence.
Trying to fly on with just 25 percent
left in one 10 gallon tank doesn’t seem
like a good idea. A review after the flight
shows that we are a 400 meters from the
last road for the next 30 plus kilometers.
In the process of deciding what to do
falseliftpickstheballoon upseveral
times. Without enough real lift the bal-
loon skips back downthe slope to the
bottom of the V.
I am 50 meters from the road Daryl
and I were flying along. To go on might
putme in the middleof nowhere. Daryl is
on the other side of the road and both of
our crews willbe along shortly. I can see
a cell tower so I know that we have com-
munication.
Ideflate theenvelopewhichgiftwraps
yet another large pine tree. We are unsuc-
cessful in being able to gently pull it off
the tree.Thetreeis so thickthat it is
impossibletoclimbupittotryandfreethe
envelope.
I survey the situation and realize all
that is necessary to remove the envelope
istogo up thesteep slopeabove the topof
tree. Using the crown line the envelope is
easily lifted off.
Now reality sets in. While I am only
50 meters from the road I am 100 meters,
or more, down in the gully. The passen-
gers and I break the equipment down and
carry the three gas bottles and burner to
the road, a trip of about 200 meters, along
the easiest route.At thebottom of the
gully the hillside is at a 60 degree angle.
Much of the climb out is at 45 degrees.
The last third is a very gentle 20 degree
angle.
Our crew eventually arrives and four
of us carry the basket up the side assisted
by three crew members pulling on a rope
from above.
Daryl’sretrieveisonlyslightlyeasier.
His trailer has to be detached and chains
used with his fourwheeldriveRange
rover to get to his equipment. The land-

owner stops by where Daryl landed and
asks him how he is goingto get hisequip-
ment out. Daryl explains and the land-
owner goes on. Apparently he came over
to seemylanding site.Daryl says the
landowner came backby hissite and said,
“If you think you havea problemyou
should see where the other guy landed.”
With Daryl out and now at our loca-
tionwe have more bodies togetthe enve-
lopeup. Sixof uscarrythe bag assisted by
a team using ropes from above. Near the
road wasa skeleton of a deadsheep. Crew
memberBillHutchenscommented,
“Look,there are the bones of the lastpoor
bugger who did this.”
Twohoursand 15minutesafter land-
ing weareon thelong road back. The
flight lasted 75 minutes and we covered
32kilometersof spectacular New Zealand
countryside never before flown over by
balloon. The drive back takes almost as
long as the flight. The scenery is just as
spectacularfromthe ground as theair.
The road back winds its way from one
ridge line to another.
A tailgate breakfastof sausage, ham,
tomatoes,bread,andbubbly awaits us
when we return to Huntly. The breakfast,
now lunch for us, was provided by the
HuntlyBusinessmens.After our mealitis
off to refueling, shopping and cricket.
A barbecue is planned for us before
the evening glow. During dinner there is
an awards ceremony. Pilotand one crew
memberfromeachballoon havetheir
names placed in a hat for the drawing for
a new watch. Severalgiftsare awarded to
some ofthe pilotsfortheireffortsthatday.
Thisreporter is singledout for a spe-
cial award. Prior to the award being pre-
sented I am asked torecount my flightfor
the gathered pilots, crew, sponsors and
otherspectators. I am presented with“The
Dip StickoftheDay Award” forthe
morning retrieve.The award is alarge
woodenblock,rounded ontop, withscenes
ofHuntlyonthree sidesand thetitleonthe
fourth. Risingmajestically from the topis
a dip stick.